In the summer of 1994, something unexpected happened across the Atlantic. America — a country that had stubbornly resisted the world’s most popular sport for a century — fell briefly, passionately, almost reluctantly in love with football. The 1994 World Cup broke every attendance record FIFA had set, filled stadiums from coast to coast, and […]
A teenager scored the winning goal in the Euro 2024 final. Not just any teenager — Lamine Yamal, who was 17 years and one day old when he curled a shot into the top corner against England in Berlin, becoming the youngest scorer in European Championship history. That moment crystallised something I’d been noticing about […]
I was twelve years old the last time Scotland played at a World Cup. France 1998 — the opening match against Brazil in the Stade de France, John Collins converting a penalty to make it 1-1 before an own goal from Tom Boyd settled things. I watched that match in a pub in Galway with […]
For twenty years, the story of Portuguese football was the story of one man. Cristiano Ronaldo’s international career spanned five World Cups, a European Championship title, and 130 goals for his country — numbers so absurd that they barely register as belonging to a real person. But time defeats everyone, and Ronaldo’s departure from the […]
There is something beautifully cruel about Dutch football. Three World Cup finals — 1974, 1978, 2010 — and zero trophies. The greatest side never to win the tournament, a nation that produces footballers of extraordinary technical quality and then watches them fall short at the final hurdle with a consistency that borders on poetic. Total […]
The quarter-final against Portugal was the moment. Youssef En-Nesyri rising above Ruben Dias to head Morocco into the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup — the first African nation ever to reach that stage. The Al Thumama Stadium erupted, and across the Arab world, from Casablanca to Cairo, millions celebrated a result that transcended football. […]
The Estadio Azteca has witnessed two of football’s most iconic moments: Pelé’s celebration after Brazil’s 1970 World Cup final victory and Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” against England in 1986. On 11 June 2026, the stadium that has hosted more World Cup matches than any other venue on earth will add another chapter to its […]
Two victories in the 2022 World Cup group stage told the story. Japan beat Germany 2-1 in their opening match, then defeated Spain 2-1 in the group finale, and in doing so announced themselves as a footballing power that the traditional elite could no longer dismiss as plucky outsiders. Those results — achieved through tactical […]
The final whistle in Stuttgart on 5 July 2024 marked the end of two things: Germany’s European Championship campaign, and the illusion that hosting a major tournament guarantees success. Spain’s 2-1 extra-time victory in the quarter-finals sent Germany crashing out of their own party, and the emotional fallout was severe. This was a squad that […]
Three World Cup finals in the last four tournaments. Let that sink in. France won in Russia in 2018, lost the final on penalties to Argentina in Qatar in 2022, and reached the semi-finals at the 2014 edition in Brazil. No other European nation has been as consistently present at the sharp end of World […]
